Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 28: Authorities today registered a case against two individuals for illegal sand mining in the forest area of Chalyan village in the Charar-e-Sharief area of Budgam district.
The police action followed a formal complaint filed by the Doodh Ganga Forest Range, Chadoora.
The accused have been identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Chera Khal Watkaloo under the jurisdiction of Police Station Charar-e-Sharief, and Bashir Ahmad Wagay, a resident of Chowdhary Gund, Chadoora.
The duo had been involved in illegal sand mining on forest land in the Darwan and Chalyan areas of the Doodh Ganga Forest Range.
According to details, the accused had been using a JCB machine to excavate sand and clay for a long time and had become more active during the recent Pahalgam terror attack, when police and administration were engaged in maintaining law and order.
FIR No 26 / 2025 dated 28.04.2025 has been registered in Police station Chararsharief Budgam for theft and damaging the forest property under sections 303 (2) BNS and Section 26 of Indian Forest Act 1926.
“I am grateful to DFO Pir Panjal Forest Division Budgam, Range Officer and SHO Chararsharief for registering FIR against the accused. I also appreciated Chief Conservator Forests CCF Irfan Rasool for personally intervening into this matter,” said noted environmental activist, Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat.
Notably, it was Dr Bhat, who highlighted this issue a few days ago on social media and also brought the matter into notice of CCF Kashmir and DFO Budgam.
“It is a matter of shame for such criminals who preferred to loot the forest area and extract sand at a time when the entire country was mourning the massacre of 28 tourists,” he said.
He stressed that the accused should be taken to task and their JCB and tipper should be confiscated.
“The officials of Geology and Mining Department should also be taken to task and environmental compensation realised from them,” he said.
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